The Shemibob called out that Vana should lead Feersh to the rope so that both might add their muscle. Vana gave the baby to Deyv to hold. He sat on top of a small boulder with the child and watched the proceedings. Presently, the creature’s front end passed over the highway. Its haulers rested for a moment and then resumed their labours. It seemed that despite their most strenuous efforts, they were not going to be able to drag it far enough for its foremost treads to catch. Then The Shemibob signalled that it should start turning its treads. She hoped that these would give it some slight propulsion forward.
The idea worked. Inch by inch, it moved forward, the section began to sink, and then the treads caught. They were going so fast, however, that Phemropit almost drove itself over the road and back into the great crack. This ended about forty-five feet beyond the highway and narrowed considerably. Phemropit would have gone in nose-first, ‘head’ down. Though it might have floated back up, its end would have been sticking up, its body wedged between the highway and the walls of the fissure. The situation would have been hopeless.
Phemropit caught itself just in time and backed, The Shemibob flashing just how far it should travel. After that, it turned on its tracks, the left moving more slowly than the right. It swivelled until it was parallel to the highway, and it travelled up on the highway, which bent under the massive weight, and was then on solid ground.
Everybody cheered in his or her manner except the baby. He began crying loudly. Vana hurried back to him, since it was his feeding time.
The Shemibob led Phemropit to a near-by river, where it plunged in to clean off the traces of silvery metal. These killed some fish downstream. Phemropit almost got stuck in the mud of the bank coming out, but it finally ground its way onto harder earth.
The Shemibob waited until the rope dried off before she poured a liquid from a small bottle onto the stone attached to it and to Phemropit. In a short time, the glue dissolved, and she rolled up the rope and put it back in the bag. Deyv noticed that Hoozisst watched this procedure very intently.
They decided to move the vessel down the valley in case another quake should open other fissures and spill out more of the poisonous liquid. Several sleep-times later, they resumed their journey. By then Deyv’s leg had almost knit and his shoulder had almost healed. Everybody was happy, or as happy as their natures and the situation permitted. It would have been a terrible loss if Phemropit could have given them its protection no longer. They felt fairly secure with it; it could scare or drive off almost any enemy or predator. Riding on it enabled them to rest when they were tired of walking. Though it went more slowly than their normal gait, it compensated for this by travelling during sleep-time. All it had to do was to follow the highway while they snored in the vessel on its back.
Deyv and Vana were well aware that this good life would cease some time. They would have to go on by themselves, burdened by the baby. The prospect was appalling. But they were determined to return to their homeland.
Thrust, the child, was healthy. He was, however, somewhat strange-looking at first to his parents. Neither had ever seen such a hybrid before. He had his mother’s kinky hair, but it was black instead of yellow. His eyes, once they had lost their natal blue, were neither Deyv’s brown nor Vana’s green but hazel: brown with specks of green. His skin was lighter than his father’s but darker than his mother’s.
Sloosh commented that Thrust was probably a beautiful baby, from a human viewpoint. He wouldn’t know. This led him into a short discourse on the races of Homo sapiens. According to him, humanity in its early days had been divided into a number of races, though it was not always easy to distinguish one from the other. Then mankind became homogeneous, so inter-bred that it formed one race. In time, because of changing conditions, new races were created, few of which duplicated previous ones. Then there was one race again. Then, a differentiation into three or four. Then, homogeneity again. And so on.
‘This child should grow up to be big, healthy, vigorous, and perhaps intelligent, by human standards. It is time that entirely new genes were brought into your tribes. Even with the custom of occasionally taking new spouses from other tribes, the intermarriage is still confined to a small number.’
Deyv and Vana were warmed by his predictions. But, as usual, he had to spoil his compliments.
‘However, it is doubtful that the child will survive the journey, since his parents probably won’t either. Once you set out without us…’
They arrived at last at the point where they must turn to the right if they were to go to the source of the flying figures. They did not leave the highway for rough country, though. Not yet, anyway. There was a junction with a road running to the left and one in the desired direction, which took them about fifty miles before it abruptly ended. Beyond it were foothills and past these a range of mighty mountains.
Here not only was there no road, there was no vegetation. Not a single plant grew on the bare rocks, from which the soil had been washed off long ago.
‘Another wasteland,’ Sloosh said. ‘And without even the redeeming beauty of The Shemibob’s land. Still, it does have a certain majesty. A grim forbidding one, though.’
Deyv wondered aloud what had killed the trees and the bushes.
This is what we Archkerri call The Dead Place,’ Sloosh said. ‘We know nothing of it because there is no vegetation to report on it.’
The Shemibob said that she was equally ignorant. ‘Knowing and not knowing are light and its shadow, two states entirely different yet as closely related as brother and sister. If you conquer one, you automatically conquer the other. Let’s set out for the conquest.’
She might also have said that conquering either abstraction always involved overcoming the physical. In this situation, it was the mountains. As they had done before the breaching of The Jewelled Wasteland, they had to store up enough food to last them. At least, they hoped it would be enough. Thirst would be no problem, since it rained heavily here. But water would be. The flash floods that raced down the ravines and the valleys and the passes would be more deadly than those in The House of Countless Chambers. And, as far as they knew, the land had no oases.
The Dark Beast had passed over five times before they had what they considered enough provisions. The baby grew larger. In the meantime, the parents had come no closer to deciding whose tribe they would live with. It was not a matter that soured their every moment, but it did darken slightly every thought when they were together.
Just before they left camp, the Yawtl proposed that Feersh should be left behind.
‘She’s no good to us. She’s only a burden, a mouth that eats our food and gives us nothing in return. If we don’t take her, we’ll have just that much more food. Now, I’m not inhumane. We could put her out of her misery so she won’t starve to death or be eaten up by some beast.’
The witch opened her mouth as if to protest, then closed it. Her dignified expression said that she would let the others defend her – if they so wished.
‘Let the lesser beings speak first,’ The Shemibob said.
Since Sloosh did not consider himself to be in that class, he kept silent. Deyv and Vana looked at each other. Though they exchanged no words, they were thinking the same thoughts. Were they as much on trial as the witch? Would their decision make them higher in the estimation of The Shemibob? Or lower? Or were they perhaps being too sensitive?
Whatever the truth about them, the Yawtl was also on trial. He did not know that, not being capable of perceiving such subtleties. As cunning as he was, he lacked certain faculties which humans had. Some humans, anyway.
Vana said, ‘The witch has been very useful even if she is blind. For instance, though she isn’t capable of hunting, she has been preparing the food we’ve brought her. She can cook, and she smokes the meat and fish. And she has offered to take care of the baby so that I can hunt and rest. This she has done, though she wasn’t used to doing such things when she was the mistress and had many slaves to do her bidding.’
‘Nor has she whined and complained even though her lot has been worse than any of ours,’ Deyv said. ‘Whereas Hoozisst, though he is strong and capable and has his sight, is always complaining about this and that.’
The Yawtl, snarling, said, ‘I won’t forget this!’
‘It’s nice that you have a good memory,’ The Shemibob said. ‘And it’s a pity that you are so vindictive. You knew, as did Deyv and Vana, how useful she’s been despite her handicap. And you must also have realized – or did you? – that she has a strong and adaptable character. Here she is, a once all-powerful lord of her immediate environment. One who didn’t even have to walk through her tharakorm if she didn’t want to but could be carried by her slaves. Yet, since her life has changed, being reduced to a level lower than that of her slaves, she has done her best to cope with the changes. From what I’ve seen of humans, many in her situation would have succumbed, simply died or become parasites. She hasn’t done either. She’s done her best to survive, to be useful, and her best is quite adequate.’
‘So what?’ Hoozisst said. ‘She may be admirable, as far as character goes, though I won’t admit that. But it’s what she can do for us that counts. I say, she’s a hindrance, a nuisance, a heavy liability.’
Deyv said, ‘If you were severely wounded and couldn’t be of any use for a long time and, in fact, it cost us time and labour, even danger, to keep you alive, would you wish us to abandon you or kill you?’
‘But you’d know that once I got well I would be a great asset,’ the Yawtl said.
Sloosh must have thought that the lesser beings had spoken enough. He said, ‘You hate Feersh because she once controlled you and you dared not rebel against her. She also robbed you of your soul egg, which you now have, and she tried to kill you. But if you’d been in her place, you would have done the same. So why, in this respect, are you any different?
‘The difference is that if you’d been blind and deprived of your high position as master, you would not have adapted so well. If you’re such a complainer in your present position, so vindictive, what would you have been like in her place?’
‘We’re not talking about possibilities,’ the Yawtl said. ’We’re talking about facts!’
‘Some things are not realities,’ the Archkerri said. ‘They appear to be facts because the individual thinks they ought to be. To him, they must be. But let me ask you this. Don’t you have any feeling, any ability to put yourself in Feersh’s skin, which would enable you to identify yourself with her?’
‘That bitch!’ Hoozisst said.
Sloosh threw his hands up and said, ‘O Shemibob, you speak to him.’
‘It would be useless,’ The Shemibob said. ‘I believe, though, that the humans have spoken up for her, though only from a utilitarian viewpoint. However, they do have some potential for empathy. Though empathy can be a dangerous thing, leading to a false attitude towards reality.
‘Still, the basic question here is one of usefulness. So, ignoring the other aspects of the question, I say that Feersh has been, is, and may continue to be of service to us. I therefore say that she will go on with us.’
Deyv and Vana had expected that the witch’s fate would be put to a vote. Apparently, The Shemibob had not considered this. But she had at least asked their opinion. Moreover, she had in some unspoken manner, they felt sure, judged them. They could not be sure, but they believed that they had come out better than the Yawtl.
Still, they could understand quite well Hoozisst’s stand.
Vana, however, stated it well, Deyv thought, when she said, ‘Our baby is contributing nothing, and he is a definitely heavy liability. Why did not Hoozisst demand that Thrust should be left behind?’
40
The pall cast by The Dark Beast was not quite at its heaviest when Phemropit and its riders came around the shoulder of the mountain. Below them was a valley. Two valleys, actually, for there was a smaller one in the centre of the large one. Out of the inkiness of the former rose The House of the Flying Figures. It was a vague bulk, an intimation of vastness from which soared a dimly lit column or tower. Its upper part was brighter, nimbused by the horizon light flowing through a notch in the mountain range opposite.
They were silent for a while, staring through the darkness, trying to put a shape to the structure below the column. The wind had died; not a sound was to be heard. Ever since they had crossed the boundary of The Dead Place, the only noise had been that which they had made or, sometimes, the wind’s sobbing or shrilling through peculiar rock formations or the thunder and lightning of storms and the splash of rain. Apart from themselves, they had not seen a living creature – no plants, no insects, no birds, no beasts. Even the stones looked lifeless compared to those outside this land. Somehow, they gave the impression that something had been drained, or sucked, from their stony essence.
Yet, a sick thing had to be still living. They often came across a small rock, or a large boulder, or a stratum in a mountainside that appeared to be infected. From irregularly shaped patches on these slowly oozed a foul-smelling liquid, cloudy, irresistibly analogous to pus. They had scraped at the dripping patches, thinking that they must be lichen of some sort and thus The Dead Place was not entirely dead. But they removed only particles of stone which were, for some reason, darker than the main body of the rock.
Now, after a long journey made circuitous because there were so many steeps up which Phemropit could not climb, so many passes to find, they were almost at their goal.
Vana shivered and broke the terrible silence. ‘I wish we’d stayed on the highway to home, Deyv.’
He did, too, but he only said, ‘This is the coldest place I’ve ever been.’
The Shemibob flowed down off Phemropit’s back and signalled that it should start the descent. After a while the going became so steep that the others also got off. They stayed behind Phemropit so that if it started sliding, they would not be crushed by it. By sleep-time, however, they had reached the floor of the valley without mishap.
Just as they did, they were startled by a great noise, a booming metallic note like that which the giant bronze gong in The Shemibob’s castle gave when struck by a hammer. Its echoes rang around the valley. They shivered and clutched their hearts.
When all was silent again, except for their heavy breathing and the pulse of blood in their ears, Sloosh spoke. His buzzing seemed almost sacrilegious; there was something in the place that might resent it. Or so it seemed to Deyv at the moment. A thing, he was convinced, brooded here and did not want interruption.
Sloosh said, ‘I wonder if that could be an alarm of some sort? Perhaps there are detectors here, and when we entered their field they set off this warning signal.’
‘Warning whom?’ Deyv whispered.
The baby began crying then. Vana tried to hush him, but he would not stop until she had given him her breast. Deyv started to ask if they should bed down or push on. Another vast note rang through the valley, and its echoes raced around the mountains. The baby gave up feeding to scream. Why it had not been frightened when the first note sounded, no one knew. Perhaps it had been too scared to voice its fear. Or perhaps it had been only half-awakened.
The echoes died; Thrust continued to yell. Vana petted him and said soothing words and finally got him to drink again. Shortly after the silence came again, it was shattered by another metallic roar.
The Shemibob said, ‘I counted twenty-one seconds between the sounds.’
The Yawtl said, ‘So what?’ But when the fourth bellow was followed by the fifth, he said, ‘You’re right.’
It was unanimously agreed that it was no use going towards The House while the terrible noise continued. They expanded the cube and all but the plant-man and the snake-centaur went inside and closed the door. These two said they would stand guard until they could stand the noise no longer. Those inside could hear nothing with the door shut, so they managed after a long while to get to sleep. Deyv did awake a number of times, startled by that b
razen thunder. But he had only dreamed it.
He was awakened after a too-short sleep when the door was opened. Sloosh stuck his head in and said, ‘The noise has stopped.’
Deyv asked, ‘Are you sure?’
Sloosh said, ‘What?’
He was deaf, and so was The Shemibob. But their loss of hearing was only temporary, and not complete. They had been able to detect all vibrations, though they had been very feeble at the end.
‘But if they had gone on much longer, we would have had a permanent injury,’ The Shemibob said. ‘I counted one thousand and fifty strokes with twenty-one seconds between each.’
There was no use asking the meaning of this. Perhaps there was none. They would not know until they got to The House, and probably not even then. All Deyv was sure of was that he was very uneasy in this place, where it was either too silent or too noisy.
The baby was fussy and did not want his milk. Vana said that she had been so upset that her milk had probably soured. The Shemibob took a bottle from her bag and from it produced a tiny pill. She told Vana that she should get the baby to swallow it. He would then calm down, probably sleep much, but the drug would not harm him. After some hesitation, Vana took the pill. Thrust spat it out several times before accepting it. Vana then asked if she could have one. The Shemibob refused, saying that Vana was not an infant, though she sometimes acted like one. This made Vana so angry that she lost her tiredness and regained her courage.
The vessel was folded up and tied onto Sloosh’s back. They ate a little – no one felt hungry – and they started across the dark hushed valley. Phemropit’s fan-light lit their way; the only sound was the striking of its treads against the loose rocks. The House loomed larger and larger, and after a while they had descended into the small valley and were beside it. Phemropit stopped. Before them was a window three times as tall as Deyv and ten times as wide. The walls disappeared on both sides of the window into the darkness.
The Lovers * Dark Is the Sun * Riders of the Purple Wage Page 52